Kilt Skier's Bier de Mars

[mashani]

Spring is for Bier de Mars. And skiing in a kilt. So here is both.

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5 gallon partial mash (only due to volume restrictions) using MoreBeer pilsner as late extract addition. This does not follow the logic of the "keep the grain bill simple" we were discussing the other day, because it's supposed to emulate a grain bill made of a mixed up mess of a French farmers hand malted grains back in the day...

I did the BIAB mash last night, then stuck it in the fridge (didn't sour at all, if it did a bit I was going to just roll with it and use less bittering hops, either way is still to style). I did this because I didn't have time to do a 75 minute mash and a long boil all on the same day. I might start doing this often for 5 gallon partial mash batches, it seemed to work nicely.

It consisted of:

1# Belgian Pilsner
8oz German Munich
8oz Wheat (US)
8oz CaraVienna
4oz Belgian Aromatic Malt

Added to that mash today for the full boil was a cold steep of:

2oz of British black malt
2oz of British chocolate malt

And

8oz D-45L Candi syrup
2# MoreBeer Pilsner Extract

Added @10 minutes 3# additional MoreBeer Pilsner LME (just use ~7# more Belgian Pilsner in the mash if you want to do it AG instead of the extract additions).

Hops:

1/2oz French Aramais (7.6% AA) @60
1/2oz Strisselspalt (1.2% AA) @60
1/2oz French Aramais @20
1/2oz Strisselspalt @5

Cool, split between 2 LBCs, top up to 2.5 gallons in each.
OG after top-up measured 1.054

I debated about yeast as either a Belgian/French ale yeast fermented at cool temps to suppress some of the esters, or a lager yeast fermented a tad warm are both appropriate. I kind of wanted to try Bella Saison at really low temps, but I was feeling that maybe it would not clean up well (my temps are 62-63ish at best, and 63 is the official low end). So I split a pack of Bella between the 2 LBCs, and then also split small starter of freshly washed Wyeast Kölsch yeast from my last batch. I know the Kölsch yeast will ferment out and clean up at my temps even if the Bella stalls out.

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[Rebel_B]

Very COOL!

[mashani]

Haha, and of course I didn't bother to consider that even though I pitched less of a true top cropping yeast then I normally would, I am still pitching a true top cropping yeast. And the Bella seems to have pissed it off... So again should have brewed this as 4.6 to 4.8 gallons LOL.

:: messy ::

[Inkleg]

Are you going to call it "Chilling with little Dave and the twins"? Sorry Paul and Chuck..................ok, not really.

Please update this. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

[mashani]

@Inkleg: I did wear underwear while skiing... I know it's wrong for a Kilt wearing purist like you...
But if I went down I didn't want "little Dave and the twins" as such to end up in direct contact with the snow LOL.

And I didn't want the typical busload of school ski team kids to get an eyeful if I tumbled down a hill past them.

I do have limits to my insanity.

Most everyone did think it was cool to see some crazy dude skiing in a kilt though. I might go back out in my other one tomorrow if the snow holds out and it gets sunny again.

[Inkleg]

I do have limits to my insanity.

Oh, you mean there's limits.

Most everyone did think it was cool to see some crazy dude skiing in a kilt though.

Ski it like you own it, Dave. Ski it like you own it.

[mashani]

This beer stinks. Between the sulfur the Kolsch yeast is making and all the weird smells Bella makes, it's funky town here. Luckily I know this has nothing to do with the end result, but some newbie would be freaking out.

Oh, and Oops, I did it again in my other Kilt.

A nice 70 year old lady was very happy to have seen something she had never seen before. I hope I'm still out skiing when 70.

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Now I need to drink some beer.

[mashani]

Bottled this as it stopped around 1.0075ish. (hydrometer could not agree on 1.008 or 1.007, read different each time I spun it)

So at cold temps Bella doesn't ferment out quite as much as Bella would at high temps. But still that's something like 88% attenuation which is more then the Kolsch yeast would have done on it's own for sure.

The hydro sample was somewhat clean and crisp tasting but had enough of the spicy/funky/citrus vibe you get from the Bella that you could tell that it wasn't just a clean lager-like yeast. Dry-ish but with a touch of sweetness from the crystal malt and candi syrup - tastes of toffee and toast - not roasty or astringent at all from the dark grains, very smooth. Light amounts of spice, herbs, flowers, citrus, and berries from the mix of the hops and the Bella. Quite tasty right out of the fermenter. It's going to be a really good beer with age because it's good beer already.

Like many of my recent beers I could have consumed this right now. I don't know what I'm doing that's making stuff "not green" tasting at all out of the fermenter, except pitching at near commercial pitch rates and being psycho about sanitation, but I'm not going to complain. It might also be related to me doing "semi open" fermenting, as in I do not use an airlock, and leave my lids on loose without a gasket, so my fermenters never pressurize, they just vent freely. I do think I've been making consistently better beer since I started to do this.

[mashani]

I popped the trub bottle. Smells and tastes of toffee and toast with some figs, herbs and peppery spice - subtle amounts of what I would describe as tarragon (like a very mellow/smooth anise) poking through (this is from the French hops for sure). A bit light citrus in the finish. Slightly tart and slightly funky like a French Saison, but mellower. The more it warms up the better it gets. The slight tartness and light body makes it very refreshing, even though the toffee/toast/figs make it sound heavy. It's like a good dubbel in that regards. It's quite nice and it's not even 3 weeks in the bottle. Aramais hops are nice, I can use them in all sorts of things I think. I think I'll make a short boil blond/patersbier with them and see how that turns out as they are perfect AAUs to use for such a thing.

EDIT: Oh and there is absolutely NO roasty/astringent flavors from the 4oz of fully husked dark grains in here. So cold steeping works awesome in that regards.

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